REF-977 · Barnes & Kilding, 2014 · Sports Medicine, Vol. · Paper · PubMed

Strategies to improve running economy

C+thin evidenceMeasured on a mixed groupWritten before October 2026, being re-checked

Running economy (RE) is the energy demand for a given velocity of submaximal running, expressed as submaximal oxygen uptake at that velocity. This review considers acute and chronic interventions studied for improving it.

Improvements have traditionally come through endurance training; training history and training volume have been suggested to be important, and uphill and level-ground high-intensity interval training may add further gains. Short-term resistance and plyometric training have enhanced RE, hypothetically through neuromuscular characteristics.

Altitude acclimatisation could improve RE; there appears to be an optimal degree of flexibility and stiffness; dietary nitrate and caffeine have received attention for reducing oxygen demand.

Participants

Not applicable — narrative review. No number of studies is given in the abstract.

Protocol

Narrative review of interventions acting on the metabolic, cardiorespiratory, biomechanical or neuromuscular components of running economy.
No search strategy or inclusion criteria are described in the abstract.

Key Results

Endurance training: improvements in RE "have traditionally been achieved through endurance training"; training history and training volume have been suggested to be important factors.
Intervals: uphill and level-ground high-intensity interval training "may elicit further enhancements in economy".
Strength: short-term resistance and plyometric training has resulted in enhanced RE, hypothesised to come from enhanced neuromuscular characteristics.
Altitude: acclimatisation brings central and peripheral adaptations that "potentially could improve RE".
Flexibility: stretching should not be discounted, but there appears to be an optimal degree of flexibility and stiffness to maximise RE.
Nutrition: dietary nitrates and caffeine are the most notable interventions for reducing oxygen demand during exercise.

Practical Application

This narrative review lists what has been shown or suggested to improve running economy: endurance training itself, with training history and volume as likely factors; uphill and level-ground high-intensity intervals; short-term resistance and plyometric training; possibly altitude acclimatisation; and, on the nutrition side, dietary nitrate and caffeine — with no effect sizes in the abstract. To "how do I become a more economical runner?": mostly by running more over years and adding intervals and strength or plyometric work, not by a single trick.
It supplies the endurance-training side that the base's runner evidence, which is mostly strength and plyometrics, lacks — but as a review's judgement ("very likely", "suggested", "may"), not as a measured effect.
On flexibility the review sees an optimum, not "more is better": some stiffness serves economy.
The authors close by saying it is not yet understood how far RE can be improved outside the laboratory.
Not from this paper; the base's own practice: how to read an economy value and which levers the assistant recommends are in SYNTH-17; the gym dose for runners is in SYNTH-44.

Limitations

Narrative review: no systematic search, no pooled estimates, no effect sizes in the abstract.
Most statements are hedged ("suggested", "may", "potentially could"); the abstract does not rank the strategies.
No doses or programme details in the abstract.
Published before much of the later strength-training meta-analysis work and before modern racing shoes.
Written from the abstract and record metadata only (full text not read).
How this entry was checked and changed
Why this level

narrative review without a systematic method; the abstract gives no effect sizes